Twitter has grown into a must have social media account for local businesses. However, like other social media platforms, it requires regular, typically daily, management in order to make it an effective marketing tool. Maintenance of a Twitter account encompasses more than just regular tweets. It requires a local business be aware of the constant conversations taking place on this platform about its industry or business.
Fortunately, there are great tools, such as Twilert, which allows a user to effortlessly keep a close watch of the conversation taking place. This monitoring will ultimately allow a local business to look for appropriate avenues to join relevant conversations and respond to comments or praise about its brand.
Getting started with Twilert is easy. An account can be created from an existing Google or Twitter account. Once this account is created, you’re ready to set up the first Twilert for your local business. It’s important to set up alerts for several key items:
- Local business name
- Branding hashtags used on Twitter
- Key competitors or industry brands you want regular updates on
An alert is set up by adding a search term, such as your local business name and how often you’d like to receive an alert. It’s often most efficient to receive daily alerts. You will want to consider, however, when you or one of your staff will need this information available. Additionally, you may find it helpful to set up the alert at a time which seems most appropriate to start with and then monitor when most of the relevant feedback is taking place. For instance, you may find your customers interact and comment on your brand between 3 and 5pm each day. In this case, it may be most effective to have a Twilert alert email sent to you at 5pm each day. This timing will allow you to join in appropriate conversations in a timely manner.
You can further customize your alerts by selecting the language you want to receive the alert in, particular Twitter accounts to follow, and what type of feedback you want to receive. Although there are only limited situations in which your local business would like want to use this last customization, when appropriate you can select to receive alerts on only positive feedback, negative feedback, or questions which were asked.
It’s a great idea to set up the Twilerts and monitor the results you get for a week. Do you seem to be capturing the relevant conversations taking place on your local business and industry? Are you getting too much information? After making this assessment, go back into your alerts and adjust them. The “manage” select of Twilerts is user friendly and easily allows you to turn on and off or change the setting.
To get more information and check out Twilerts, go to twilerts.com.
Chris Marentis, an expert in the field of local business online marketing, leverages the internet to generate leads and boost local businesses across the country. His company is Surefire Social.
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